|
 Possession, cultivation and private personal consumption of
marijuana by adults for the sake of just getting high has already
been legal in Colorado for more than year under a state
constitutional amendment approved by voters.
But starting January 1, cannabis will be legally sold and taxed at
specially regulated retailers in a system modeled after a regime
many states have in place for alcohol sales — but which exists for
marijuana nowhere outside of Colorado.
For the novelty factor alone, operators of the first eight marijuana
retailers slated to open on Wednesday morning in Denver and a
handful of establishments in other locations are anticipating a
surge in demand for store-bought weed.
"It will be like people waiting in line for tickets to a Pink Floyd
concert," said Justin Jones, 39, owner of Dank Colorado in Denver
who has run a medical marijuana shop for four years and now has a
recreational pot license.
Jones said he is confident he has enough marijuana on hand for Day
One but less sure of inventory levels needed after that.
About 90 percent of his merchandise is in smokable form, packaged in
small child-proof containers. The rest is a mixture of
cannabis-infused edibles, such as cookies, candy and carbonated
drinks.
"People seem to prefer smoking," he said.
FROM MEDICAL TO RECREATIONAL
Washington state voters legalized recreational marijuana at the same
time Colorado did, in November 2012, but it has yet to be made
commercially available there.
Pot designated strictly for medical use has been sold for some time
in storefront shops in several of the nearly 20 states, including
Colorado and Washington, that have deemed marijuana legal for health
purposes.
But Colorado is the first to open retail pot stores, and craft a
regulatory framework to license, tax and enforce its use for
recreation.
Outside of the United States, Uruguay's parliament recently cleared
the way for state-sanctioned marijuana sales, but the South American
nation is at least months away from having a system in place.
The Netherlands has long had an informal decriminalization policy,
with Amsterdam coffee shops allowed to sell marijuana products to
customers. But back-end distribution of the drug to those businesses
remains illegal.
"It will actually be fully legal in Colorado, at least under state
law, whereas in the Netherlands it's been tolerated, not actually
legal," Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy
Alliance, a pro-liberalization group, told reporters earlier this
month.
"Colorado is essentially the first. It's really the first in which
this is explicitly legal and where marijuana is being grown legally,
sold wholesale legally, sold retail legally," Nadelmann said.
"This is groundbreaking," said Mike Elliot, spokesman for Colorado's
Medical Marijuana Industry Group. "We are way ahead of Washington
state, Amsterdam and Uruguay."
Critics of liberalized marijuana laws likewise view Colorado's new
order as a landmark, albeit one they see in a more negative light.
Kevin Sabet, co-founder of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a leading
anti-legalization group, said the movement toward ending pot
prohibition is sending the wrong signal to the nation's youth.
ENDING PROHIBITION
"There will still need to be a black market to serve people who are
ineligible to buy on a legal market, especially kids," Sabet said.
"It's almost the worst of both worlds."
Critics say the social harms of legalizing pot — from anticipated
declines in economic productivity to a potential rise in traffic and
workplace accidents — will outweigh any benefits.
[to top of second column] |
Legalization backers point to tax revenues to be gained and argue
that anti-marijuana enforcement has accomplished little but to
penalize otherwise law-abiding citizens, especially minorities.
They also argue that legalization will free up strained law
enforcement resources and strike a blow against drug cartels, much
as repealing alcohol prohibition in the 1930s crushed bootlegging by
organized crime.
But Sabet counters, "We are witnessing the birth of big marijuana,"
which he compared to the tobacco industry.
Under Colorado's law, however, state residents can only buy as much
as an ounce of marijuana at a time, while individuals from out of
state are limited to quarter-ounce purchases. State law also limits
cultivation to six marijuana plants per person.
Those limits were not enough to deter a 30-year-old high school
sports coach who is visiting Colorado from North Carolina but gave
his name only as Matt.
"I don't really drink a whole lot, but I'd prefer to smoke a little
bit and have a good time with the friends that I hang out with," he
told Reuters on Friday. His New Year's plans include a "Cannabition"
pot party in Denver.
Marijuana remains classified an illegal narcotic under U.S. law. But
in a major policy shift in August, the Obama administration said it
would give states leeway to experiment with pot legalization, and
let Colorado and Washington carry out their new laws permitting
recreational use.
The state has issued a total of 348 recreational pot licenses to
businesses statewide, according to the Colorado Department of
Revenue's Marijuana Enforcement Division.
Of those, 136 are for retail stores, 178 for cultivation operations,
31 for manufacturing of infused edibles and other sundries, and
three are for testing facilities.
Last month, Colorado voters approved a combined 15 percent excise
and 10 percent sales tax to be imposed on recreational pot sales,
with the first $40 million raised to fund school construction
projects.
The Colorado Legislative Council estimates the marijuana taxation
scheme will generate $67 million annually in tax revenue to state
coffers.
Only people over age 21 can buy recreational pot. Public use of
marijuana remains illegal, as is driving while stoned. The state has
set a blood-THC (the active ingredient in cannabis) limit of
5-nanogram-per-milliliter threshold for motorists.
Other states are taking a wait-and-see approach to the Colorado and
Washington experiments before they take the leap toward
legalization, said Rachel Gillette, head of Colorado's chapter of
the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
"Colorado has found an exit strategy for the failed drug war and I
hope other states will follow our lead," she said.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis;
editing by Steve Gorman and Ken Wills)
[© 2013 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2013 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
